Your "Pomnicore" tag on my post abt physical touch is making me lose my mind because YES!!!!!! I Understand her so well. I don't view her as hating physical touch and being 100% uncomfortable with it, more so being really really selective, easily overstimulated, wanting it on her own terms, and maybe not being used to it. I think her moving away from Ragatha those few times is less her not wanting to be touched by Ragatha ever, but moreso 1. She's not anticipating it/can't prepare herself, and 2. She's already stressed and can't focus on another thing (like she was literally diffusing an actual bomb when she moved away from Ragatha's touch in episode 5). I think she enjoys physical touch when she's the one to initiate it, and when she's able to anticipate it and regulate/prepare herself. Most of the time when she's being touched, it's when she initiates it herself when she's ready. I think Ragatha and her get into the habit of Ragatha asking or waiting for signs when she knows Pomni is chill and like opening her arms or holding out her hands and pausing and letting her make the final decision and make the contact.
That's pretty much my view too! It kinda bothers me how people use that moment to be like "Oh, she hates Ragatha and loves Jax" because A. the situations are very different, one is she's stressed and overwhelmed trying to defuse a bomb with no idea what is happening and the other she's been having fun playing an exhilarating game. B. Even if you do love and trust somebody, you can still have instances where you don't want to be touched. Particularly in a situation where you're already overwhelmed. Like, clearly trust is a big factor, but I doubt it's the only one.
There may be another reason Pomni took a bit to get comfortable with Ragatha touching her since the first time they touched Pomni got painfully zapped and glitchy too. I imagine THAT took a while to get over, even intellectually knowing it wasn't going to happen again or that Ragatha wasn't really responsible for that.
I love your ideas of how Ragapom navigate Pomni's touch aversion though! I also tend to have them more like sitting next to eachother or leaning on eachother quite a bit, Ragatha putting an arm around her since I think Pom might do better with "I'm here" being near someone touches than full on hugging. Particularly since Pom definitely seems autistic, sometimes unexpected hugs can feel like entrapment or be overstimulating. I do think Ragatha might take a bit to get comfortable with asking for touch or touching her after their initial touch starvation and excitement at the Ep 9 hug wore off since, ya know, anxious overcompensation is a bitch. So I do think Pom initiates alot early on. But pretty much yeah, I think eventually they could figure out when Pomni was fine with touch and when to back off.
